Graden CSI proves a key tool in the fight against disease for Bransford Golf Club

With changes in pesticide legislation having an ever-deepening effect on Sportsturf quality, the drive for turf managers to shift their nutritional and mechanical maintenance to a proactive approach has never been more important. Graham Wallace, Golf Course Manager at the Bank House Hotel’s Bransford Golf Club, is doing just that and has recently invested in a Graden CSI from Charterhouse Turf Machinery to help them produce strong greens.“The course has sand-based greens but, due to the poor quality of sand used during construction, are unfortunately susceptible to holding water” explains Graham, who is supported by a greenkeeping team of five. “With the upcoming changes in fungicide regulations it is becoming essential to keep the surfaces dry, and the plant healthy, as much as possible to prevent disease from taking hold.” To help improve drainage, Graham has conducted in-house drill ‘n’ fill across the 18 greens for many years, followed by passes with the Graden CSI to keep channels open. “We were lucky enough to borrow a CSI from another course, but last year this was not possible, and we noticed a real difference on how wet the greens were compared to previous years.” Graham put a case to the owner and was successful in purchasing his own unit, from dealer Tallis Amos in February 2019. “Now we have our own machine, we can look to get out with the machine more frequently and can trial various depths and settings to achieve maximum impact with minimal surface disruption.” Graham is hoping to employ the CSI at least twice a year, working at depths of up to 40mm to simultaneously scarify and backfill the grooves with better quality sand. “I made the decision last year to not spray any fungicides, with mixed results. I was hugely thankful that the members and club management understood it could be a challenging time to keep surfaces first-rate. These last few months certainly haven’t been easy however, by using our CSI in conjunction with overseeding and the correct fertiliser programme, we are in a great place to push ahead with our proactive approach and produce a strong plant in the on-going fight against disease.”

Headland programme reaps rewards, and awards, for Hamworthy Sports Club

The significant improvement in the condition of the multi-sport facilities at Dorset’s Hamworthy Sports Club has largely been put down to a nutritional regime suggested by Headland Amenity. Such is the progression in uniformity and quality achieved across the football, cricket and golf surfaces that Head Groundsman Gavin Fisher has been awarded Dorset FA Groundsman of the Year and Dorset Cricket Groundsman of the Year – for the second season in a row!Gavin has been at the club for six and a half years and is solely in charge of the turf maintenance – a busy site that’s home to Hamworthy Cricket Club and Hamworthy Recreation FC. “When I joined the club, the feeding programme I inherited clearly wasn’t working” he explains. “The golf greens in particular were suffering from disease, patchy coverage and just a general lack of growth. While I had no previous experience of Headland or their products, their Sportsturf specialist Alex Hawkes stopped by and we got on straight away. He took some soil samples and spent time going through the product range to formulate a programme that would be effective site-wide.”For Gavin, one of the biggest challenges has been to create a programme to improve surfaces, while sticking to a very tight budget. “Alex fully understood that we needed versatility from the products, that could perform not only on different playing surfaces, but adapt to weather conditions and other environmental pressures.” Key to the programme has been Headland’s ‘20/20/30’ Enhanced Plant Health strategy. “We apply this tank-mix across both the golf and cricket surfaces every month. It is used in conjunction with various analysis’ of Xtend® slow-release fertiliser which we can tweak as the seasons change and TriCure AD™ Granular on our golf greens, to deliver more uniform water distribution, which has helped us cope without an automatic irrigation system.”“We also use Xtend® on the football pitch, together with Multigreen® temperature-controlled release fertiliser, which we apply once early in the season and then again in the autumn. The beauty with the programme we have is, though it has largely remained the same in the last few years, we have the flexibility with Alex’s knowledge to make adjustments here or there if we think we can achieve even better results. We are now reaping the rewards of our investment, having made real strides with the health, appearance and playability of our sports surfaces.”

SeatGeek today announced a multi-year partnership with newly promoted Sheffield United to become the club’s official primary ticketing partner. The Blades selected SeatGeek after a detailed review of the UK sports ticketing market, and are already experiencing the benefits, having launched their 2019-2020 Season Ticket Campaign via SeatGeek’s platform in March with record Season Tickets sold, over half of which were processed online via the club’s new online ticketing portal.Key to Sheffield United’s decision to appoint SeatGeek was the power and flexibility of the SeatGeek SRO platform both online and in the back-office, and the proven track record SeatGeek has established in implementing immediate benefits in the ticket purchasing experience for fans and staff alike.Sheffield United fans will find it easier than ever before to select the seats they want, while the club will have increased flexibility and clarity through SeatGeek Enterprise’s rules-based engine and reporting. The club’s executive team have wide-ranging ambitions to develop ticketing, membership and corporate hospitality solutions, and the rollout of SeatGeek’s SRO platform is perfectly timed with the club now preparing for life in the Premier League for the first time since 2007.Sheffield United join a growing number of UK based sports clubs that have chosen SeatGeek’s SRO platform to power their ticketing including Premier League sides Manchester City, Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion, as well as EFL Championship teams including West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa, Derby County and Bristol City.